Bunkrooms News

One of the pleasures of staying in Fionnphort is to be able to pop over to Iona, such a tiny island but with a massive appeal. The silver-sand beaches of Iona are legendary, but in complete contrast, and with a fascination all of its own, is St Columba’s Bay.

Inch Kenneth: Fionnphort is one of the special places on the west coast of Scotland which offers the opportunity to visit fascinating offshore islands. Iona, Staffa and Treshnish each have their own very distinct unique character and are the most well-known and popular of the offshore islands of Mull and fairly easily reached, with a bit of forward planning.

If you want to experience a slice of a natural heaven, try Traigh Gheal beach, accessed through the Tireragan Nature Reserve. The walk, which starts at Knockvologan, is one of the most challenging on the Ross of Mull as the terrain is rough and can be very boggy. However, with the exceptional dry weather for the past two months, this is a great time to take the walk to Triagh Gheal as the going is easier as it is less wet underfoot.

Our intrepid cyclist guest Marianne left us this morning, heading back to Craignure. She arrived two days ago, having first completed two sections of the “Wild About Argyll” bikepacking trail, with some family members, around 570K in total. Having found herself in Oban with a couple of days to spare, she decided to head to Mull and cycle the length of the south of the island from west to east; Craignure to Fionnphort.

Today we were blessed with one of those windless winter days with clear blue skies where the only place to be is the Ross of Mull. The day started off well with a great view of an otter in Loch Pottie, the v-shaped wake clearly visible on the otherwise smooth surface of the water. However there was a need to gather seaweed to fertilise the lazy beds in the newly created allotment and it was decided this was the perfect day for it. Uisken was the chosen destination as it has a handy small car park right on the beach and the winter storms had provided a large deposit of seaweed

Here we are at the beginning of September with the busiest part of our first season behind us - and it was busier than we ever imagined it would be! The wonderful natural outdoor environment here has attracted walkers, cyclists, birders, botanists, geologists, archaeologists and pilgrims amongst others to try our new accommodation in Ross of Mull Bunkhouse

The popularity of wild swimming has grown over the past few years and on the 6th of May this year an open water swim across the Sound of Mull was the great finale to a series of four swims for 2017 organised by Highland Water Swim. Our own Rachel Ball, manager of Ross of Mull Bunkhouse took part in the swim, with her friends Marianne and Kristen.

We have only been here for 10 weeks, but right from the start we were amazed at the amount of wildlife around. We are extremely privileged to have daily visits from hen harriers, which hunt over the moor directly behind the bunkhouse and regularly quarter the grounds of Achaban in search of a tasty vole. The spring can't come soon enough when we will hopefully be treated to the male sky dancing, and this pair raising young through the summer

We arrived in the Ross of Mull in November, to start a new bunkhouse business in this beautiful part of Mull which we have visited many times. We are currently renovating the cottage in the grounds of Achaban House which will provide budget accommodation for families, couples, individuals and groups